The invention relates to a device for adjusting the rotational angle position of the camshaft of a reciprocating piston internal combustion engine relative to the crankshaft in a motor vehicle, wherein the device has an adjustment gear mechanism, which comprises a triple-shaft gear mechanism with a crankshaft-fixed drive shaft, a camshaft-fixed output shaft, and an adjustment shaft, which is drivingly connected to an electric motor that can be positioned by a control device, wherein the ignition of the internal combustion engine can be connected via an ignition switch to the battery of the motor vehicle, and wherein the motor vehicle also has at least one device that can be adjusted by a user of the motor vehicle.
Such a device is known in practice. It allows an adjustment of the phase position of the camshaft relative to the crankshaft that drives it during the operation of the internal combustion engine. In comparison with an internal combustion engine that is operated at a constant phase position, a better filling of the cylinders of the internal combustion engine can be achieved by this adjustment of the phase position, whereby fuel is saved, pollutant emissions are reduced, and/or the output power of the internal combustion engine can be increased. The control device is turned on together with the ignition of the internal combustion engine via an ignition switch with the help of an ignition key. After turning on the ignition, first a microcontroller integrated into the control device is started, wherein, among other things, various test routines are executed and memory locations in a volatile semiconductor memory of the control device are loaded with start values. In addition, the rotor of the electric motor is positioned in a given position relative to the stator. The period that the control device requires after turning on until it is ready to operate equals approximately 50 to 150 milliseconds. The driver of the motor vehicle senses this period as disruptive, because the internal combustion engine cannot start immediately after turning on the ignition, but instead must first wait until the boot process has completed. Of course, it would be conceivable to start the internal combustion engine before this time period has elapsed, but this has the disadvantage that during the startup phase, an increased pollutant load would be produced in the exhaust stream of the internal combustion engine.